Study says with acceptance of same-sex relationships comes more experimenting

As acceptance of the LGBT relationships grows, so do the number of same-sex encounters among people

By Jason Spencer |
Jun 04, 2016

Recent years have shown great strides for the LGBT community. And as acceptance becomes more and more common, so do romantic encounters with people of the same sex.

According to NBCNews.com, a new poll shows that nearly half of Americans are okay with those who date or have relations with people of the same sex. Not even 30 years ago only 13% said there was nothing wrong with homosexual or bisexual relationships, whereas in 2014 it had risen to 49%.

And with the acceptance comes more and more people engaging in same-sex relationships.

"The number of U.S. adults who had at least one same-sex partner since age 18 doubled between the early 1990s and early 2010s," wrote a team of scientists from three different universities across the United States: Florida Atlantic University, San Diego State University and Widener University.

In the 1990s, only 3.6% of women and 4.5% of men said they were in a same-sex relationship. Today,those numbers have raised to 8.7% and 8.2% respectively. The same can be said for bisexual behavior.

"Bisexual behavior increased from 3.1 to 7.7 percent, accounting for much of the rise, with little consistent change in those having sex exclusively with same-sex partners," wrote the team.

Not surprisingly, NH Voice noted that millennials were more accepting of those identifying as homosexual and bisexual. Though with time, Generation X is starting to come around.

"What we're seeing is this movement toward more sexual freedom," said Jean Twenge, a professor from San Diego University and main author of the study. "There's more freedom for people to do what they want without following the traditional, often now seen as outdated, social rules about who you're supposed to have sex with and when."

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